Kim Reaves’ Blog

Wednesday (Day 20)

Good Morning all,

 It is currently Wednesday morning here in Ghana and we just arrived at the hospital.  Yesterday we had a chance to go to Kurle-bu teaching hospital with Dr. Akosua.  The teaching hospital is contained within a compound that has the medical school, nursing school and multiple hostile type living facilities.  We walked through the children’s ward as well as the surgical center.  We also took a quick look in the ICU and ER. The hospital was very over crowded with patients in the halls and on the floor. There were procedures being done in any available space.  It was hard to even walk through the hospital because of the number of people. Also, it was hot and the smell was not the best.  It was nice to see the “State-of-the-Art” facility in Accra but as one doctor put it “we practice a different art here”.  We also met Dr. Akosua’s father who is a hematologist at Kurle-bu. He said that the hospital is over crowded because the referral system does not work and people are not being treated in the outside hospitals they are just being referred quickly.  Our visit was cut short because Dr. Akosua’s son was still sick and his school called for her to come pick him up. On our way back from the hospital she dropped us off in Osu so we could eat lunch. We ate at the Osu Food Court where I had a salad with my chicken pita. We then walked down to shop at the multiple shops along the road.  We bought fabric to have a local seamstress make us authentic Ghanaian dresses.  We brought groceries at Koala then took a taxi back to the house.  We tried to drop our fabric off but the shop was closed already.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that Elizabeth and Andrew, two medical students from Virginia were back at the house.  We answered some questions about how to get around and helped them get phone cards to call home.  We cooked some chicken with a bag of mixed vegatables with rice and called David to see if he wanted to come eat.  We really enjoyed dinner and then afterwards David was nice enough to teach us a song in Ga. I have to admit I do not actually remember the words this morning but they are written down at the house. I will have to review it later.  We took the lap top from the hospital back to the mission house last night so we were able to watch a movie and eat  some of the popcorn that Andrew brought.  We finished up and headed to bed around 11 to get some rest for another day.

This morning we did not have devotion because of the staff meeting so we have a little extra time before clinic.  Dr. Akosua told us yesterday she wanted us to run our own consultation room like Tuesday so I am sure it will be a busy day.  We have a doctor’s meeting at 2:00 pm where Dr. Akosua will be doing a presentation.  Next week Ashley and I will be presenting during the meeting.  I will be talking about Typhoid and Ashley will be doing a presentation on Malaria.  We worked on this on Monday night and we are almost finished.  I am sure we will have time this week to complete them.  We are hoping to go to Cape Coast this weekend and we are waiting to see if the other students would like to go with us.  There are four other students from Virginia who will be coming but due to the snow in London their flight was not able to take off and they won’t be here until Friday. We will probably help Andrew and Elizabeth find the grocery store today so they can get some food. That is my brief highlight on the days plans.

Other thoughts: I have been getting the blog posts (thank you Ms. Braden) and please keep them coming. There might be some delay in my replies.  To answer a few questions: I am doing a combined residency program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.  I will be able to see both children and Adults and I can specialize later if I would like.  The program takes four years and I will find out in March where I will be doing my residency.  The majority of the places I applied are in the southeast. As for international medicine in the future, I am sure I will do something in Africa again at some point and I am hoping to do a couple months during residency.  My long term plan is to practice medicine in the U.S. with various medical trip through out my career. Peyton would also like to do medical work abroad so it is a good combination (Peyton did a residency in Internal Medicine and is working as a hospitalist currently in Mississippi near Mobile).  I am looking forward to residency but scared at the same time. It will be nice to finally have a salary but it is not a big one compared to the number of school loans. Medical school can be costly.

Well, I hope all is well back home. Please keep your comments and questions coming. I will try to post pictures later in the day.  The computer will not read my card from my camera so I have to get them from Ashley’s camera and I have to be on the lap top to be able to post them (I am currently using the office’s computer) so it might not be today.  Please update me on what is going on in the U.S. I feel very out of touch. My email is kimmarie82@gmail.com if you need anything.

Talk soon,
Kim